The Untold Story of Silver Haile: The Beginning
by Shadows and Truth
Summary: The first adventure of the first part in the chronicles of Silver Haile and her adventures with the Doctor. Just a kind of prologue, to introduce them.
1. Chapter 1 The Beginning

The First Doctor: A Crossing of Paths

Everywhere in the universe, at every single moment, there are billions of individuals going about their business at the same time. A Raxacaricophalvapatorian might be enjoying a meal in a first class star liner the same moment the Moxx of Balhoon is getting burnt to less than a crisp on an observation deck being sabotaged by a piece of lip-sticky skin. The two will never meet, never hear of each other, and never have anything in common other than these shared moments in time.

Our story concerns two such individuals. One a Time Lord, and one a human. These two led very different lives, and had almost nothing in common. There was no reason for them to meet, and it was almost impossible for them to do so.

But sometimes, paths, no matter how they diverge, cross.

1 The Beginnings

While a strange blue box sat on a beach with a straining, sputtering wheeze coming from it, a young human girl walked along a crowded sidewalk. Well, people called it crowded. But really, they meant something more along the lines of 'Fifteen more people here than usual.' It was that kind of a town, where everybody knew everybody, and everybody knew everybody's business. Unfortunately, in that kind of a town, there wasn't much business to be known. A lazy contentment, a sort of permanent stability, lay over the town like a haze. Or a net. A net that was closing in on the human girl every day, and made her soul thrash and scream in dismay and longing for escape. Escape from the town, from a purposeless life, from the mundane to freedom and meaning.

Her name was Silver Haile. And she was bored beyond belief.

"Well, there must be something you can do!"

"I can't do anything, young man. It's out of my hands."

"But this is your ship, you fly it all the time!"

"And he doesn't exactly choose our destinations. In fact, he nearly brought us to before the beginning of the universe!"

"But that wasn't Grandfather's fault! The switch broke, if it hadn't been for him we'd all be-"

"Safe and well at home, isn't that right, Doctor?"

"I have tried to get you home. It's because I tried we were in that mess, Chesserman!"

"You're the one who abducted us!"

"After you forced your way into my ship, may I remind you, young lady, hmm?"

"She was worried about Susan! And so was I."

"He's right, Grandfather. They were just concerned."

"Well, it wasn't their place. Pushing past an old man into his private property..."

"It did look like a police box."

"Which wasn't my fault either! There's no use blaming me for things I have no control over."

"You had fairly ample control over our freedom."

"You talk as though you'd been kidnapped."

"Oh, I'm sorry Doctor. I didn't realize we hadn't been!"

"Chatterton, you-"

"Chesterton!"

"How dare you raise your voice at me!"

"Enough, both of you!"

"Stay out of this, young lady!"

"Quiet, Barbara."

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me!"

"Stop! Grandfather, please, make them stop!"

"Susan, you stay out of this as well!"

"I can talk if I wish!"

"As can I!"

"Then let us know if you have anything usefull to add to the conversation."

"Ian Chesterton!"

"He's quite right."

"Oh, Grandfather, how could you?"

"We have more pressing problems."

"Problems that you created."

"I have no control over this! And I don't need the input of two frivolous females, and one stubborn, primitive human boy!"

"Grandfather!"

"Doctor!"

"Doctor!"

"Enough, you three! I can't hear myself think."

"I wish I couldn't."

"What did you say to me?"

"I wish you would, all of you, shut up!"

"Quiet!"

"Ian!"

"Barbara!"

"Grandfather!"

"Chesterton!"

"Doctor!"

"Susan!"

"Young lady!"

Very soon, the sounds of bickering drowned out the noise of the Tardis' engines... 


	2. Chapter 2 Paths Crossing

**2**  
** Paths Crossing**

Silver trudged home in the heat of summer. Deciding that she would rather be bored in her air-conditioned house than wandering aimlessly through the town sweating herself silly, she had begun walking back. She didn't really know what she would do when she got home, but there wasn't anything unusual in that.

The school year was over, which to most people was a cause for celebration. And while she was no fan of school work, Silver was a lesser fan of boredom. Even a math lesson would have been welcome at this point. Just something to do, rather than sitting at home listening to her IPod over and over again.

She reached her house and walked in, calling out a "Hello," to her parents. Opening the door to her room, she started to look for her IPod. She walked in, lifting her foot up and putting it down inside her bedroom.

And then suddenly, she was standing in a completely different room.

*******

The old man marched down the hall, harrumphing all the way. Occasionally he would stop and yell, "If he hadn't touched that console!" or "She had absolutely no right to accuse me!" sprinkled with the odd, "How could she take their side?"

His name was the Doctor. He was a long way from home, and he was in a very bad mood.

He walked into the console room doorway and paused, looking around warily for any "unwanted young people." Nodding at the empty room, he walked in confidently, swinging his walking stick. He'd show them yet. He knew quite how to fly this machine, thank you very much. He was completely in control.

Then the girl appeared.

The Doctor froze. The girl looked just as surprised as he was. She stopped and stared, whirling around to look behind her. She turned back and looked at the strange room; her eyes wide.

"What are you doing in my Tardis?"

The girl jumped, and looked at him with something akin to fear. "I'm sorry?" She said with an American accent.

"You heard me! Who are you, and how did you get into my ship?"

"This is a ship?" She frowned as her mind went into question mode to avoid panic. "Doesn't feel like one."

"Well, of course not! We're not at sea! Now, how did you get on board?"

"I-" She frowned again. "I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I mean I DON'T KNOW. But how can this be a ship if we're not at sea? And what kind of a name is Tardis?"

The Doctor sighed noisily. "You're obviously from a very primitive era, otherwise you'd know that there are many different kinds of ships. Besides, it isn't just a name. It's an acronym. 'Time and Relative Dimensions In Space.'"

"What about them?"

He scoffed. "Well, this ship! That's what they're about! I travel in them."

The girl went back to staring. "You travel," she said slowly. "In time and space?"

He sighed again. "Yes, child."

And she was young. While clearly tall for her age, she could be no more than twelve. She was slim and pale, with dark hair and dark eyes. Her clothes said she was from the early twenty-first century of earth. Which was odd. Because they didn't have time travel. They didn't even have teleports. So seeing where, and more importantly WHEN they were, she couldn't be here.

These thoughts passed quickly through the Doctor's head as the girl looked at the ship anew.

"Where am I?" She said.

"This is the eastern coast of New France in the twenty-third century." The Doctor watched her reaction carefully.

She blinked. Opened her mouth, and closed it again.

"New France?" She repeated tremulously. "The twenty-third century?"

"Yes," he said. "Where exactly are you from?"

"California. Two thousand and fourteen."

Her fear and confusion was genuine, and the Doctor's bluster and defensiveness died away. He came closer to her and said gently, "Now then, my dear. What's your name?"

The girl swallowed. "Silver Haile."

He nodded. "Well-"

A man, tall and broad shouldered with an intelligent face and dark hair, walked into the room. His gait was that of a man who had come to a hard decision and wanted to get it over with.

"Alright then, Doctor. I'm sorry. It wasn't your fault, and I was-" He caught sight of Silver. "Who's THAT?"

"Uh, Silver. Silver Haile."

"Well, that's all well and good, but what are you doing here?"

"She just appeared," the Doctor cut in.

"'Just appeared?' What, like a teleport?"

"No, no teleporters here," Silver said.

"Then how'd you get in?"

"I don't know."

"How do you not know?"

"I just don't know. What about that is so hard to understand?"

"Alright, alright." The young man held up his hands in surrender. "But there must have been something. I mean, people don't just randomly pop out of thin air!"

"Well, I had nothing to do with it. You're the ones with the time traveling space ship; can't you just beam me back?"

The Doctor scoffed. "My ship can't beam anyone, don't be ridiculous."

"Okay then, fly me back home."

The man cleared his throat pointedly, and the Doctor glared at him. Silver looked back and forth between them. "What?"

"Are you going to tell her, Doctor?"

The Doctor huffed, and said nothing. "What?" Silver said. "What is it?"

The man sighed and looked at her. "He can't take you home. In fact, he can't take me home either."

"You act as though it's my fault, when in fact it was you-"

"Actually, just before you got here, we were in the middle of a rather unpleasant argument. We're stuck in the middle of a war with a bunch of angry New Frenchmen after us, and he can't fix it."

"I can see how that would be cause for argument."

"Yes."

"Well, you had no right to start accusing me of-"

The Doctor was interrupted again as a woman, tall and dark haired with kind eyes walked in. She too stopped and blinked at Silver, looking at the Doctor in confusion.

"What's going on?" She said.

Silver sighed. "We wish we knew."

"She just appeared in front of me," the Doctor said.

"Like a teleport?"

"No! Not like a teleport!"

"No need to yell at her, young lady. Barbara's quite all right, really."

"Thank you Ian."

"Well, I have no idea who you people are, or how I got shunted to another part of the world and several hundred years in the future."

"Several..." Barbara looked at Ian. "But who is she?'

"'SHE,' is Silver Haile," Silver said. "And I was just walking into my room when this happened."

"Then what?"

"Then nothing. I just walked into here instead."

"That's impossible!"

"Well," the Doctor said testily. "Obviously it isn't, or she wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be gaping at her like a pair of goldfish."

Ian and Barbara glared at him. Silver started to tactfully change the subject, when another young woman -more of a girl- walked in.

"Grandfather, have you seen-" She stopped and stared, something Silver hoped wasn't going to become routine.

"Who's that?"

"Susan, this is Silver Haile."

"What is she doing here?"

"She appeared in front of me."

"She teleported?"

Silver groaned loudly.

"No, her time doesn't have teleports."

"Then how did she get in?"

"Like I said, she just appeared."

"I am getting an over whelming sense of deja vu," Silver muttered.

Ian broke in. "But who exactly is she?"

Barbara cut in. "And what is she doing here?"

Susan said, "What should we do about her?"

"I don't know."

"Well, whatever we're doing, we're doing it without her apparently!" Silver shouted.

Everyone looked at her askance.

"Sorry. But that noise is really getting on my nerves."

Everyone frowned, and Ian cocked his head.

"Is that..."

Everyone turned to look at the console. The column in the six sided console, clear like glass and filled with lights, rose up and down. The groaning, wheezing noise accompanied the rise and fall of the column, and the Doctor looked triumphant as he walked over to it.

"We're taking off!" Barbara exclaimed.

"I told you it would be alright."

"Oh, Grandfather, you've done it!"

"He didn't exactly do anything."

"I have to admit, you're right, Chesserman. I had nothing to do with this. Whatever it was that was blocking our take off must have cleared. A discrepancy in the time stream, perhaps, hmm? But at least you know that equally wasn't my fault."

"Hold on!" Silver ran forward to the others. "What about me? What if I can't get back? What if it was connected to this place, this time?"

"I can't do anything. Once we're in flight, we can't do anything."

Ian smiled at her sadly. "I'm afraid you're rather in the same spot as us. Welcome aboard."

Silver looked at the four people as they started to talk again, the Doctor working the console in the hesitant manner of an inexperienced driver. Ian was watching him warily, Susan watched the console's readings, and Barbara stood on, talking with Susan.

What had she gotten into?


	3. Chapter 3 Tornado Sky

** 3**

** Tornado Sky**

The elephantine groan of the Tardis' engines had shuddered to a halt. Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor were clustered around the small scanner set into the hexagonal console talking to each other. Silver wandered around the room, taking in the odd layout.

The walls and the floor were all a pristine white that matched the Doctor's shoulder length white hair. Set into the wall on every side were roundels, for which Silver didn't quite understand the reason, but then she didn't understand much of anything that was going on. By the large doors was a hat stand, a vase, and a table.

In the corridor, it was much the same. An antiseptic white, with doors at nearly every opportunity for there to be a door. She walked down the corridor for some time, then turned back and to the console room. She didn't know that she would be able to find her way back if she went too far. Upon her return, Susan ran to her and grabbed her by the arm. She was very eager, and friendly.

"Come on!" She said excitedly. "Grandfather's quite certain that the air is breathable, and the gravity is very much like earth's. He says we can go out and have a look around while he takes notes. Are you coming?"

Silver hesitated. "Oh, come on, please?" Susan said. "You might as well come, there isn't much to do in here. Grandfather's still trying to build up the library, and we don't have many things to do."

Well. She had wanted an escape from boredom. Was she really going to back down at the first opportunity that presented itself? "Alright," Silver said. "Do you know where we are?"

"No, Grandfather isn't at all certain. But he says it should be safe."

As the girls walked back to join the group, Silver frowned at a thought that had just occurred to her. "Can he control the ship?"

Ian heard her words as they drew near. "No," he said ahead of Susan's defense. "No, he really can't."

"Be fair, Ian." This was Barbara as she joined in. "He at least knows how to fly it."

"Much to my dismay. I would have preferred to stay right where I was; flightless."

"Please, don't argue again. We only just made up."

"They didn't get to finish their apologies," the Doctor said over his shoulder.

"Oh, Grandfather..."

"Well, they didn't. It's the least they could do, after all."

"Is the sky supposed to be green?" Silver felt the need for a tactful change of subject had arisen. She took advantage of the image on the scanner to do it, and the others stopped their conversation to look at her. She really hoped that wasn't going to become a thing.

"How interesting," the Doctor said. "The moisture particles in the air are so small, they can bend the light and alter its appearance to the observer. They absorb the red light and make the scattered light appear blue. If the scattered blue light is set against an environment with heavy red light and a dark grey thundercloud, the net effect makes the sky seem green."

"It's beautiful." Silver looked at the scanner in awe. The Doctor looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Yes. It is, isn't it?" He flicked a switch on the console, and the doors hummed open.

"Would you like to see it up close?" He smiled at her, and she saw in his old and grumpy face a kind of child like eagerness and mischief. His eyes sparkled, and Silver found herself smiling back. Susan was already out the door, and Ian and Barbara went off to join her quickly. The Doctor shooed Silver on, and she didn't waste any time in running after the trio as the Doctor went to get whatever things he needed to take notes. She slipped past the three travelers and stopped, staring in amazement.

The scanner did no justice to the sight before her eyes. The green light spilled from the heavens like emerald satin, staining their surroundings bottle green. Darker greens and streaks of red were painted onto the sky as well, like the strokes of an artist's brush. The four were silenced, unable to speak for fear of breaking the spell the planet had cast upon them. Silver suddenly felt extraordinarily blessed to witness this, no matter the insanity of 'this.' She turned to see if the Doctor was coming, the desire to share the experience overwhelming. She froze as she did so, blinking in confusion. She turned completely, uncomprehending.

Instead of a vast metal ship, with engines and turbines, cargo holds and portholes like she expected; she was greeted by a blue box. Written on the top were the words, Police Public Call Box. She walked towards it, her eyes wide. She walked around it, covering the space the box occupied quickly. She came back to the doors, small and blue, and peered inside.

Largeness. That was what was conveyed to her. Largeness, and a space that stretched on and on in endless corridors. The Doctor came out as she was looking in, holding a notebook and some kind of measuring equipment. He closed and locked the doors, chuckling as he turned to Silver.

"Well, my dear? What do you think?"

"It's... Your ship... But that's impossible!"

He chuckled again. "Dimensionally transcendental. Not impossible, just unlikely for someone like you."

Silver didn't know whether to feel insulted, but the Doctor had moved past her before she could make up her mind. He glanced at the sky appreciatively, before walking off with a gay step. He was spry for his age, and he had gone far past them and halfway up the hill in front of them in almost no time at all. Shaking her head at the old man's antics, Silver looked away from him and back to Ian, Barbara and Susan. They seemed to be discussing something, and Barbara caught Silver's eye and motioned for her to come and join in.

"I think we should follow Grandfather," Susan was saying.

"No," Ian said. "The old boy can look after himself. I want to have a look at that forest."

"But remember what happened with the savages? We barely escaped with our lives, and Grandfather was the first to be captured."

"All the more reason to go our own way, Susan! If he's captured, the young and strong can save him. If we're captured, there isn't really all that much he can do, is there?'

"Grandfather's quite clever. He'd think of something."

"Look, all I'm saying is that he can go and see whatever it is that's over the hill, while we go and see something new. If we see something worth calling him over for, we will! And he can do the same with us."

"Wait," Barbara cut in. "I think we're forgetting something. This is Silver's first time on an alien planet. She should get the vote."

Ian and Susan looked at Silver. She hesitated uncertainly. "Well..." She looked to the forest ahead, and then back to the rapidly disappearing figure of the Doctor as he crested the hill. "The forest," she said firmly.

Ian looked triumphant, and Susan sighed but gave no argument. Barbara smiled at Silver kindly, and while Silver felt the smile was like that one would give to a child, she took no offense at the genuine warmth. Ian turned and set off for the woods, the three girls following him closely.

Ahead in the silence, shining eyes watched them with animal curiosity and hungering...


	4. Chapter 4 Hidden By the Trees

**4**

**Hidden by the Trees**

Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright were walking behind Susan and Silver. The two young girls had taken the lead, and Susan seemed happy to have someone a little closer to her age around. Silver was a little annoyed by the others' treatment of her, as though she was a child. But she tried to dismiss it, as this same attitude had gotten her into more trouble than she cared to recall. Susan was busy filling her in on the story of the two British school teachers, and Silver listened with rapt attention, Ian's words and Barbara's admonitions becoming clear as she laughed at the Doctor's treatment of them. He had abducted them, basically. Susan giggled along with her, and they started to run towards the forest. Ian and Barbara started to run as well, and soon they were all breathless as they ran and laughed. Once in a while, Susan would turn to see if the Doctor was still in sight, but he had disappeared over the hill. Silver tilted her head as she kept her place as first of the four, the green sky filling her eyes with its magnificent sweep of darkest jade.

She snapped back to the present as trees suddenly filled her view. She brought her head down and stopped just inside the mass of trees. They towered over her, their dark skin shining with the light of the tornado sky. The bark was literally black, and the leaves on the trees could have been any color; but the sky did its work here too. A wind gusted through the foliage, and the leaves shimmered like a green pool. Silver grinned, exhilarated by this miraculous sight.

Behind her, the trio caught up. Their breathing was harsh as they skidded to a halt, hands on their knees. Breathless with anticipation instead of exhaustion, Silver started off into the forest. "Come on!" she called to them. "Let's go!"

Susan was able to start following, her younger constitution giving her the energy. But Barbara and Ian could only attempt to stagger forward, drawing deep and rattling breaths. "Wait..." Ian called raggedly. "Hold on a minute."

Silver paid no heed. She was feeling something akin to a sugar rush, or the euphoric experience an innocent man feels after being released from prison. She was going to run, and she wasn't going to stop until her very heart burst. She had wished for this, dreamt of it more than anything. To be free of her life and be granted a new life. Now that she had it, she wasn't going to let it go for anything.

The calls of the teachers, and even then of Susan, died away in her ears. Silver kept running, only the sound of her footsteps in this silent wood of black and green.

Glass shattered under her foot. She yelped as the silence broke with the glass, and slammed to a halt. She turned to look at the broken glass, shaking the crushed remnants from her shoe as she did so.

The glass was lit as though from a million points with olive glimmerings. The shape of it was curved in several spaces, bending the light around to dance on the trees' reflective surfaces. Silver bent closer to examine the object, the make of it somehow familiar in its sculpted form. She reached her hand to pick it up. Then she froze. Turned her hand so that it was facing palm up.

The shape of the glass was the shape of her hand. And then she realized that the flickering light it was creating could not possibly have spun onto the trees in that manner, unless it was moving itself. And she peered closer, looking past the greenness that wavered on the reflection of the glass hand.

And realized that the fingers were twitching gently.

She gave a startled cry and fell back, scrabbling backwards across the dirt ground as the broken fingers started to move even more. She jumped up as the hand wriggled on the ground towards her.

"Okay, so we have a glass hand that's crawling toward me of its own accord. Is that meant to be normal?"

Susan appeared in front of her and stifled a scream as she caught sight of the hand.

"Nope. Not normal. Apparently, not normal at all."

Silver went around the glass hand, giving it a wide berth as the fingers dug into the dirt and tried to follow her. She ran to Susan and, the girls went back along the path they had forged through the woods. Eventually, they stopped and looked at each other.

"At least it can't follow us," Susan said shakily.

Something solid hit the ground behind them with a soft breaking of the soil. They turned slowly to see what it was, and Susan screamed.

Ian and Barbara ran haltingly through the trees. Barbara was captivated by the light the trees drank from the sky, but Ian was single minded in determination to catch up with the pair of girls. He kept shouting for them, but he called for Silver louder than he did for the Doctor's grandchild. He was starting to remember that he knew nothing about this strange girl, who claimed to come from hundreds of years in his future and have nothing to do with appearing inside of the Tardis. He was concerned for Susan's safety, and he intended to keep an eye on this Silver girl until he made a decision about her intentions.

The older generation was breathing hard as they followed the tracks left by the younger one. Barbara's wonderment of the trees had died away to a dogged resolution to keep going. She was just as concerned for Silver as for Susan, trusting her intuition. The girl was intelligent, and seemed mature for her age. Barbara had been a teacher, after all, and she had developed a kind of sixth sense about children. So she called for Silver with as much concern and friendliness as Ian did for Susan.

Ian pulled ahead of her, and she made no move to catch up. She slowed down to catch her breath instead, and scanned the ground more carefully for any sign of the girls. A small glimmer of green light, like that from a bottle adrift at sea and turned green by the elements, caught her eye. She moved toward it, leaving Ian to forge ahead. She slipped past the black of the trees, the soft leaves brushing her skin. On the ground in front of her, she saw a kind of glass figurine, its fragility obvious as Barbara saw that it had been shattered. It lay like a piece of jade stone on the blackened dirt, surrounded by strange shoe prints, which she assumed belonged to Silver. Barbara followed the imprints to back the way she had come, and saw Susan's more familiar shoe marks join up with Silver's. They continued on for a way, before suddenly disappearing. The ground became more firm, as though a multitude of objects had pressed into the ground and turned it hard. To her left, Barbara saw footsteps again, but these were different. They were unshod, had four toes, and the impression they left was that of smoothness, and strength. She followed them hesitantly, but Ian's calls had grown faint, and she didn't think that she could find her way back to the place if she tried to get Ian to join her. Her heart was quick and nervous in her chest as she began to realize that the girls' footprints were not evident anywhere.

She stopped, deciding that it was better to risk losing the trail than her life, or her way back to Ian. She turned to try and find her own footsteps and then, eventually Ian's. She never got the chance.

Barbara's scream rang through the forest.

Ian stopped, his fellow school teacher's cry reaching his ears. He spun around and ran towards her scream. His footsteps pounded into the softened ground and sounded harsh in his ears. Then they sounded lonely, because now there was no other sound as Barbara's fearful shriek was cut off abruptly. Ian

made himself go faster, running until he had neared the scream's point of origin.

He didn't hear the steps, softly pressing into the earth behind him. He didn't see the new kind of reflection on the trees as something was raised that caught the light and spun it away.

All he heard was the thud of something on the back of his head, and all he saw was darkness.

The Doctor was making slow progress over the terrain, filled with grass that seemed a part of the sky above him. He stopped every ten feet to take a measurement, jotting it down in his notebook as he muttered to himself. But he still found time to gaze admiringly at the tornado sky, and to think about the strange girl, and her stranger entrance to his ship. He had decided almost instantly that he would trust her, but now he was beginning to doubt his judgment. He had no idea if she was who she said she was, and no way of finding out. And yet her awe of the sky, and her seeming fear of him and her sudden materialization in his Tardis seemed genuine.

He paused in his musings to take another measurement. Some feet ahead of him was a small black tree, its leaves shining with the light of the sky and casting their illumination onto the reflective surface of the dark skinned tree. His keen eyes flicked up to it, and he saw within the black clad living mirror another figure behind him. The Doctor stopped and wrote in his notebook innocently, his eyes on the tree ahead. The figure was drawing slowly nearer to him, its footsteps unheard even in the silence of the green cloaked planet.

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw another figure. A different height and build, it was still nonetheless the same kind of thing as the one stalking him. It was a blur to his front facing eyes, because he dared not try and look at it head on; or even to turn his head slightly. While it might not have noticed, he had no guarantee that the one that had just appeared on his other side would be unable to see. Nor the two that had joined the one behind him. The Doctor just continued to draw closer to the tree, with no plan or defense. He wished for Chatterton, or even for Miss Wright. They were bright young things, as was his Susan. Even that Haile girl might have been able to come up with something. His brain just tried to focus itself on the facts and figures of the planet, but his head throbbed. He was too old to be doing this sort of thing.

He reached the tree and began to take notes on that, trying to see the reflections of the three figures behind him and the two on either side. He moved around the width of the tree and, steeling his nerve, he brought his eyes up to look at his silent shadows.

They were far closer than he had anticipated, and on his seeing them, they broke into a quick, fluid kind of run. Soon, they were walking away from the tree, dragging the Doctor's unconscious form behind them.


	5. Chapter 5 The Strong Survive

**5 **

**The Strong Survive**

The Doctor was dragged to the center of the black circle and deposited by his three companions. He lay completely still, and Ian, Barbara and Susan were just as motionless. Only Silver was awake.

Perhaps it was the effect of the shunt to the Tardis. Perhaps she was still hyped on the adrenaline and excitement from her new experiences. But whatever it was, she was awake and watching in fear as their attackers moved about the clearing in the woods.

They were humanoid, but they were most definitely not human. They had four toes on their bare feet, and six fingers on their hands. Their eyes were pools of black, with streaks of green inside. Their skin was the clincher, though.

They were made of glass. Their bodies, their heads, their limbs, everything was made of a toughened glass. Translucent in most places, they reflected the green of the sky above; capturing the emerald light and sending it spinning to the trees, to be cast everywhere. But the clear glass was streaked in places with a dark matter, a non light. It did not reflect the light, it just absorbed it. They moved like liquid, flowing across the ground. Their eyes were orbs of black poured into the sockets of their heads, and the eyes did not move. The aliens had to turn their heads if they wanted to view something, so Silver took advantage of that by kicking Ian, or prodding the Doctor. She would pop her head up and peer around for some kind of glimpse of familiarity, something that would allow her to find her way to the Tardis if the others woke and they managed to escape. But she saw only trees, and the ever present glass sentries. So she gave that up, and went back to kicking the others awake.

A sharp kick to the ribs, and Ian gasped into wakefulness. He started to speak, but Silver shushed him into silence. He looked at her questioningly, and she nodded to the creatures that walked unceasingly around them. Ian stared at them in shock and then looked back at her. She shrugged, and he seemed exasperated. He turned his attention to Barbara, shaking her and whispering into her ear. Silver watched the glass people carefully, her sharp eyes darting between each of the creatures, before she decided something. She sat up slowly, shaking her head to get her dark hair out of her face as she did so, and Ian looked at her in surprise.

"I thought you didn't want me to draw attention to our being awake," he said softly.

"I think if they wanted us to be incapacitated, they would have tied us up. Besides, you and I weren't being all that subtle. I don't know if they care that we're awake."

"Then why bother knocking us out to begin with?"

"Probably just to get us here without a fight. Why put up with our struggling when they can just tap us on the head and be done with us? Did you notice how easily they overpowered us? Me and Susan, anyway."

"Yes, those chaps are strong alright. I have a splitting headache."

"You should count yourself lucky they didn't actually split your head open. I'm sure they could, if they wanted to."

"Yes." Ian frowned. "Why capture us? What's the point? We're nothing special."

"Maybe they don't know that. Or maybe they're interested in that time traveling space ship of yours that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."

"Excellent point, my dear."

Ian and Silver turned to see that the Doctor had woken up. He was sitting cross legged on the black stone circle, and peering around with interest at the creatures and the circle itself.

"They could very well want the ship, but I must also agree with Chatterton when I say, 'Why should they apprehend us?' They could have attempted to break in when we were separated and far away from the ship. So why indeed, hmm?"

"How do you feel, Doctor?"

"Oh, well enough, Chesserman. My head is sore, but those creatures were not meaning to kill. Nor to harm us too much, I should think."

"Why do you think they brought us here?" Silver said.

"I have no idea. But, I think that we shall soon find out."

He nodded to the living figurines, and Ian and Silver looked at them as they all froze. The black and green within their fragile bodies seemed to curl and twist, and they looked like they were listening to something the three could not hear. They broke off their silent listening suddenly, and they glided to form a circle around the five travelers, their backs to the circle. The trio glanced at each other questioningly, but no one had any answers to the strange behavior of the creatures.

Through the gaps between the glass people, they saw the forest that ringed the clearing. In the green tinged shadows that draped the forest, something moved. A flicker of a second shadow, that was all they saw, before its creator was revealed.

It was humanoid, and made of glass like its comrades, but there the similarities ended. This one towered over the other figurines, and the colors streaked through its translucent body moved through it like paint that had been spilled into a river. Its eyes glowed softly with a lime green fire light. It slid across the ground with a slipping noise, and the green sky above them turned it the green of the woods and made it look like a forest nymph. Around its head was a kind of black glass crown, like obsidian. It commanded attention and subservience, and Silver felt a ridiculous urge to bow. Ian seemed to feel the same way, because he started to stand as a matter of respect; but the Doctor stopped him from doing so. He pulled Ian back to the ground, and he himself remained sitting. Silver pushed aside her own feelings of obedience to a ruler she did not serve, and the three of them looked up at the king. Barbara and Susan still did not stir.

The glass king stopped outside the ring of his subjects, and two of them parted to reveal the travelers to it. Its emerald eyes looked at them balefully, and Silver could not meet its gaze. Ian had to look away as well, but the Doctor blinked at it dead on; calmly looking it in the eyes.

**Who are you?**

Its voice seemed to fall from its lips like badly played music on a magnificent instrument; a piece of brilliant song played by an amateur. Silver and Ian winced at the discordant notes, but the Doctor was unfazed. "We are just travelers," he said. "Who are you?"

**We are the Mophado. We are the owners of this world.**

"Then we apologize if we have trespassed, or offended you. But there was no need for violence!"

We need you. You are required.

Silver didn't know if that statement made her entirely comfortable.

"Why should you require us? We have no interplanetary importance, no weaponry. What do you need us for?"

**All of you are not required. You need not fear.**

"I shall ask again. What do you want of us?"

**You are required. That is all to be known.**

"I should think not," Ian exclaimed. "Don't we have a right to know what's going to be done to us?"

**You are required. That is all to be known.**

The Doctor huffed angrily, and Ian looked ready to explode. Silver was a little annoyed at the glass king herself, but she tried to keep a cool head. Changing the subject, she said,

"You said you don't need all of us. So which of us do you want?"

The king turned to her, and his green fire eyes bored into her.

**On Mophados, the weak are destroyed quickly, and the strong are honored. Your strong shall not be touched. They are to be left alone. But your weak have no use to you. So these are the ones we shall take.**

"And which of us are the weak ones?"

He didn't answer, his musical voice stilled as he nodded to the sentries around the captives. They moved quickly, and all the trio saw was green and black, and flashes of light that refracted off the glass people as they were suddenly among them. Then they were gone, leaving their posts at the circle to melt into the shadows of the forest with barely time for a glimmer of light. Somewhere in the chaos, the king had done the same thing. Ian, Silver and the Doctor looked at each other in shock at the hasty retreat, and the abrupt emptiness around them.

Then they realized just how empty their surroundings were, and the king's voice sang through the vacant space to them.

**You are free to leave.**

But Barbara and Susan were gone.


	6. Chapter 6 Dark Embrace

**I do not own Doctor Who, or any part of it. Except for this fan fiction. Which is awesome. So share it. I command you, my three lonely followers.**

* * *

**6**

** DARK EMBRACE**

When Barbara woke, it was to shades of sickly green light and coverings of shadow. The light looked unreal above her for some reason, and she was unable to move. Around her was only darkness. She strained against the weight that pressed into her from all sides, but she could not free herself.

Beside her, though she was unaware of it, Susan was in the same predicament. The poor girl was close to hyperventilating, and wriggled as much as she could, even as the oppression that lay heavy on her pulled at her skin and made her even more stuck and prone to panic.

The two young women tried their best to break free from the strange trap they had found themselves in, but they soon gave up. Neither of them were fools, and it became quickly clear that they could only be released from outside their suffocating bonds. So they lay still, silent for several minutes. Eventually, Susan started to cry.

"Susan? Is that you?"

She stopped. "Barbara?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"Oh, Barbara where are we? What's happened to us?"

"I don't know."

Susan gasped in sudden remembrance. "Those things! Those terrible things! Did you see them Barbara?"

Barbara nodded slowly. "Those glass creatures? Yes, I saw them."

"Why did they take us? And they got Silver too! Where is she?"

"I don't know, Susan."

"Do you think..." Susan stifled a sob. "Barbara, you don't think they killed her?"

"Calm down, Susan. I don't think so. After all, they didn't kill us. Why would they kill her?"

"Then where is she?"

"Susan, I don't know!"

Susan's quiet sobs filled the fear drenched silence for a while.

"I'm sorry," Barbara said quietly.

Susan drew a breath. "It's alright."

"What do you remember?"

"Just those glass people. They came towards us, and they had to drag Silver down fighting. I was too frightened to do anything."

"I understand. I was too."

"Barbara," Susan's voice was suddenly trembling. "Do you think they got Grandfather? And Ian?"

"Ian was somewhere nearby when they got me. So it's possible. But the Doctor was over the hill by that time. I don't know if those things would have known he was there."

"If they're free, how do you think they'll find us?"

Barbara looked around at the darkness. "The Doctor will think of something. I know it," she lied.

Footsteps, softly clinking in the harshness of the quiet. Susan and Barbara stiffened, teacher and pupil united in fear. Above Barbara, a shape, twisted and warped by the unhealthy light, came into view. A six-fingered hand was placed on some kind of invisible surface, and it seemed to grasp something and pull the trappings away. Brighter green light shone into Barbara's eyes, and she was grabbed by smooth hands to be pulled to her feet. She was propelled forward, and she turned her head to see Susan in a kind of glass coffin. Susan couldn't see her, and her muffled cries reached her teacher's ears as she was pushed steadily ahead. She could not make out what it was, the shock of the lighting still binding her eyes with a fuzzy vision. The glass hands around her arms were tight, and Barbara could only submit to the treatment without a fight.

When she was gone, Susan's panicked crying rose to hysterical weeping.

_**...**_

Silver was sitting in the black circle, her legs crossed and her hands in her lap, watching Ian and the Doctor as they fought like they had the past ten minutes.

"Why don't we go after them?" Ian said.

"Because it is too dangerous," was the Doctor's reply.

"Everything we do is dangerous!"

"I see no reason to throw ourselves headlong into danger so recklessly. We must be rational."

"'Rational?' He's got Susan and Barbara! We should be going after him right now!"

"No, I think not. We should go back to the Tardis and assess the situation more carefully."

"They could be dead by then! You heard how they treat their weak, now they think the girls are the weak ones because we woke up sooner!"

"I refuse to allow myself to be led into such a ridiculous venture."

"Then I'll go myself!" Ian threw his hands in the air and stalked towards the woods.

The Doctor chuckled. "And how do you plan on finding them, hmm? Going alone, you stand no chance. They'll overpower you in a second."

Ian stopped and turned around, his expression tight. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"I suggest that we go to the ship and find something that will help us find them; track them down!"

"How do we find the ship? We don't even know where we are!"

"I do not believe the king to be an irrational being. We must be close, that's why he set us free."

"You don't know that! We could waste all our time by going off and looking for the ship!"

"Well, we're certainly not gaining any time by standing around and arguing in this juvenile manner, Chatterton!"

"Okay." Silver stood. "You two stand there and fight. I'm going to find the ship." She turned and walked in the opposite direction the glass people had fled to. Ian and the Doctor stopped abruptly to stare at her.

"On your own?" Ian said incredulously.

Silver turned, walking backwards as she spoke. "Come if you want, but for goodness sake, make up your minds about it! I'm not listening to you two anymore."

The Doctor looked at Ian in triumph, and began to follow Silver as she about turned to walk the right way. Ian fumed for a second, then he hurried after them; only the briefest of glances thrown backwards with regret.

They had been walking for only about twenty minutes when they reached the edge of the black and green forest. They broke from the darkness of the woods and emerged to the open spaces of the grass that matched the sky. Deciding to turn left, the trio walked along the fringes of the trees before catching sight of the blue box. They started to half-run, Ian and Silver outpacing the Doctor quickly. They reached the Tardis, and the Doctor came up to them out of breath. He made no comment or complaint, just pulled out his key and pushed open the doors. He strode through and was down a corridor by the time Ian and Silver had entered. They hurried to the hallway, but saw only a flash of the old man's coat as he disappeared into an adjoining corridor. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

Soon, he reappeared with a kind of handheld scanner and a jumble of wires. He set it all down on the console and motioned for Ian to come and help him. He shoved the wires into Ian hands and told him to strip the casings from them. Ian set to work with a sigh, and the Doctor called Silver over as well.

"Now, my dear," he said. "You seem like a reasonably intelligent young woman. I need you to connect the wires as I say to."

"That doesn't sound so hard."

"Well, it will become very complicated."

If Silver doubted that, she was quickly proved wrong. As fast as Ian could strip the wires, and he could strip them fast, the Doctor would splice them with care and pass them off to Silver, rattling their positions off swiftly. The second she had the wire in place, the Doctor passed her another one that needed to be connected separately, while still joining to the first one. She worked as fast as she could, but the wires started to pile up beside her to be hooked up. When all the wires were stripped of their casings, Ian came to her to help. The Doctor continued to twist them in a certain way and pull them apart or push them together before handing them to his two companions. He muttered to himself constantly, repeating 'Susan,' over and over under his breath when he wasn't barking orders at the two.

Thirty minutes later, Silver and Ian removed their fingers from the scanner's wiring, and rubbed them ruefully. The Doctor busied himself with replacing the back of the scanner and tinkering with the buttons and the screen; muttering only a terse thanks to the two. They stood back and watched as he moved the wires and buttons in a complex manner, until he was finished. Suddenly, he was chuckling that evil chuckle Silver was starting to recognize, and holding the scanner above his head in triumph.

"Yes, it's working! I can see Susan and Barbara's positions quite clearly."

"How did you do that?" Silver asked.

"I simply set the scanner for humanoids. While those glass creatures are indeed humanoid, there are several characteristics that we do not share that made it quite simple for me to find them."

"Oh, yes. Well done Doctor," Ian said sarcastically as he flexed his cramped hands.

The Doctor shot him a look. "Well, you were helpful Chatterton."

Ian just sighed. Silver moved closer to the Doctor and looked at the scanner. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well. We obviously can't reason with them. They need the girls; the king was very specific in his words. So, we'll simply have to rescue them discreetly.

"How do you propose we do that?" Ian said.

"He has a point. If they need them so much, they'll be watching them closely. And you know how strong they were. One guard would be enough."

"Yes, excellent reasoning, my dear. We shall need to scout it out a bit first before making any hasty plans."

"How do all get close enough to them without setting the cat among the pigeons? They'll probably be watching for us; in case we try and attempt a rescue."

"Exactly, Chesserman. Which is why we will not all be going together. Safety in numbers, but discretion in solitary, hmm?"

"And who do you plan on sending in alone on this mad cap operation?"

_**...**_

Ian ducked down as another Mophado, _That really was a silly name,_ slid by on smooth glass feet. That was the thirtieth of the infernal things to pass him in the past hour. Cursing the Doctor's name, he shuffled forward in a half crouch.

Silver and the Doctor huddled together over the small screen, tracking Ian's tedious progress on the scanner. It had been decided that Ian was to be the one to go, because he stronger than Silver and more limber than the Doctor. While he had agreed with their reasoning, Ian had argued the need for reasoning at all. It was madness, he proclaimed. What if he failed? What then? He refused to go in alone, unarmed.

Now, an hour later, he was making slow headway through the murky forest. The sky above them was what passed for night here. The sun was obviously gone, its radiance no longer lighting up the ever present green clouds that swept across the sky. But they gave off their own light, turning the forest into a world of green half lights and liquid black shadows. Ian was a small blip on the scanner, his form lost to the darkness long ago. The Doctor switched between watching Ian's progress and checking on Susan and Barbara's positions on the scanner. Every now and again, using a radio he had fashioned out of bits and pieces from the Tardis, he would contact Ian and give him directions.

Silver would sometimes look up at the sky in wonder, or watch the trees as they swayed in the growing breeze that played havoc with the lighting and made their surroundings light up like the Northern Lights of earth. Then she would pause and wonder at her description of the lights. When had she started to think about this alien planet so casually? Was it really so easy to let go of her life?

_Yes, _she would think. _Yes, it is._

The Doctor shifted suddenly. "Look," he said. "One of the girls is being moved."

Silver looked at the scanner and saw the red dots that denoted the positions of the two young women. One of them was indeed on the move, and the other one was completely still. "What do you think they're doing?"

"I have no intention of finding out at the risk of their lives. Chatterton?" The communication device was turned on and the Doctor spoke into it quickly. "Chatterton, one of the girls is being moved."

"It's not Chatterton, Doctor. It's-"

"There's no time for that now, they're taking one of the girls away!"

"Where to?"

"Close to your position. Keep a sharp eye out, they'll be guarding her."

"Roger that, Doctor."

The Doctor sighed with anxiety, and Silver found she was just as concerned for the fate of the two girls she only barely knew. "What do you think they'll do to them?" she said quietly.

"I don't know, my dear. I just don't know."

_**...**_

Barbara was shoved to her knees casually. The glass creature behind her stood silently, strong and quiet as a tree. Around her, dozens of the creatures stood in the same way, the light they reflected dancing eerily in spite of their stillness. She strained to see past the flickering radiance, but she could see only a figure wreathed in paradoxical shadow, the light somehow unable to touch this one. The darkness around him drank the beams in, and it looked as though the light was afraid to caress his glassy body.

Then, at an invisible signal, the glass people moved. They closed in around Barbara and she shrank back as they encircled her. Their translucent bodies pressed together so that she could only see dimly through the dark streaks that clouded their insides. The one cloaked in blackness glided to the circle on smooth footsteps of silence, and she saw a black crown on its head; like obsidian.

**Do not be afraid,** the king said, for Barbara was certain that it was the ruler of the aliens around her. **You have been chosen. You are weak, but through you shall rise the strong. Be honored, and recognize the gift of redemption given you.**

Barbara wanted to cry at the shockingly sweet voice that slipped from the king's lips.

"What do you want of me?"

**We want what you have that is not deserved. Your life in the light.**

Then the creatures behind her lifted her up, and she was pressed through the ranks of the glass figurines. Barbara whimpered, and she thought that the lips of the king turned up at the corners, sending webbed lines of amusement to spread across his face. Then she lost sight of him as she was pushed to something she could not see; and sensed she did not want to.

Blackness wrapped around her, and her pain filled scream pierced the silence of the black and green forest.

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**To my three, solitary followers at the moment; and any future people who decide to recognize my genius: I should be putting a new chapter up every Wednesday. However, I have a very stupid computer, so I may not be able to upload it successfully on those days. P.S., Please review, I enjoy reviews.**


	7. Chapter 7 Transcending

**7**

**TRANSCENDING**

Ian stared in horror, his eyes wide and taking in what lay before him. Barbara had vanished, pressed forward into a kind of shimmering black portal. Oval shaped, it had the look of a mirror; flat and lifeless, yet holding lights inside its reflective depths. As he watched, the portal flared brightly with non-light, a shining blackness that wrapped around the surroundings, and then contracted into itself. The small dot of darkness then disappeared completely.

The Mophado king with the crown of volcanic glass stepped forward. He stopped in the space where Barbara had stood, and looked at his subjects.

**It is done**, the glass man said. **The weak female has been subverted to the nothing that once swept over our world and the lives it held. Now, her sacrifice shall herald the resurrection of the dawn. We, the Mophado, shall rise to life and to redemption.**

What could he do? What could he possibly do? Ian was an impulsive man, but he was a science teacher with a good head on his shoulders. He didn't know what had happened to Barbara, and he had no way of making the glass people bring her back. He didn't even know if she could _be _brought back. So he started to retreat, still on his hands and knees, until he was a safe distance away. Ian sat with his back to a tree facing away from the gathering of the Mophado, and flicked his communicator on.

"Chesserman, what is going in there?"

"Doctor, Barbara's gone!"

"'Gone,' what do you mean 'gone?'"

Briefly, Ian explained as best as he could the sight of his friend pulled into the opening of the sinister portal, screaming as she was wrapped in its dark embrace.

The Doctor was silent on the other end for a time. Eventually, Silver's voice floated through to Ian. "Did you hear what they were saying to her?"

"No, I told you. I only saw them talking."

"Well, how did they open the portal? Was there a machine, or some kind of phrase?"

"Not that I could tell. But there could have been someone in the woods doing it; I had a limited view."

"Very well, Chatterton," the Doctor interrupted. "Are the Mophado still in this clearing?"

Ian peered around the tree. "No, they've scattered. There's just a few there now."

"Good. Then I think we shall take it upon ourselves to pay a visit. Wait there."

The connection was cut off. Ian shifted back to his original position, and brought his knees up to his chest. The forest was cold, and a wind blew through the branches. Ian allowed his thoughts to wander in order to distract his mind from his uncomfortable predicament. The night sky above him was a myriad of dark lights that danced in his eyes, and the sound of the wind was the lullaby they waltzed to. Ian slept.

_**...**_

"Chesserton. Chatterman? Ian!"

Something kicked his leg. Not enough to hurt, but enough to off balance his precarious arrangement and send him sprawling onto his side. His nose was level with the Doctor's shoe, and he contemplated reaching out and making _him_ fall.

"Honestly, falling asleep at a time like this! With Susan missing and Barbara taken to who-knows-where!"

While the Doctor continued to harrumph and berate Ian, Silver reached down and helped the poor man to his feet; biting back a grin.

"Thank you, Silver," he said pointedly. The Doctor paid no attention, his gaze transfixed by the clearing ahead. He frowned, rubbing his head as though he had a headache. Ian and Silver watched as he walked to the space within the trees, a troubled look on his face.

"What is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor motioned for her to be silent. Ian and Silver looked at each other as the old man stopped within the middle of the clearing, blinking slowly as if he was in a dream.

Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he sank to the ground.

_**...**_

Barbara drifted. Lights and sounds mingled with darkness and silence, and her mind retreated into itself to protect her from the onslaught.

_I don't know how long it's been this way. Hours? Days? Perhaps I had only just arrived. I don't know. Maybe it was forever? I don't know. I can't concentrate. _

A light. _How pretty, _she thought. This one was solid; it didn't flit away as soon as it was seen. She moved slowly towards it, as though through water. Her dark hair moved in front of her face, and she lost sight of the beam. Her arms could not move themselves, so she waited in a daze for her hair to move on its own. When it did, the lights was close, crashing towards her in a blaze of bright fury that swept her up and pulled to shining oblivion and she screamed…

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**Hello, my few followers. Well, we are few now. But soon, my brilliance shall spread throughout the world and we will be many. HA HA HA!  
**

**Yes, I said _we. _I can follow myself if I want to.**

**Anywho, just wanted to apologize for the short chapter. The next one should be longer. **

**P.S. Review. I command it of you, my minions. REVIEW!**

**P.P.S. Just kidding.**

**P.P.P.S. No, not really.**


	8. Chapter 8 Setbacks

**8**

**SETBACKS**

Silver and Ian shook the Doctor as he lay on the ground, only a barely discernible exhalation of breath to show that he was alive.

"Did you see anything?" Ian said.

"I think if I had, I'd have told you!" the dark haired girl snapped.

Ian didn't feel like arguing with the sharp tongued female, so he went back to patting the Doctor's cheek in an effort to wake him. While he did this, Silver stood and looked around the clearing.

"Something must have triggered… whatever it triggered. People don't just keel over for no reason. So what caused it?"

Ian looked at her. "Well, he was looking for something when he came over. What do you see?"

Silver looked around at the empty clearing. She had seen for herself the old man's cleverness, and doubted that she could find whatever it was that he had seen. The Doctor stirred, and muttered something they couldn't catch. Silver ignored him and walked to the black and green trees that surrounded the clearing, lit by the night's shining green clouds. Everything was surreal and mutated by the twisted light, which didn't help much in looking for clues. She walked around the circumference of the darkened ring, running her fingers along the smooth bark of the towering trees.

As she neared Ian and the still unconscious Doctor, her fingers dipped suddenly into grooves that swirled along one of the trunks. This wouldn't have roused her interest but for the fact that none of the other trees had had any blemishes. She paused and looked at the marks curiously. Ian watched as she peered at them, straining to see in the dim light.

"Ian?" she called. "You'd better come and look at this."

He hesitated, but left the Doctor where he lay and came to Silver.

"Oh," he said. "Oh no."

_Help me they are going to kill me._

_-B.W._

"Barbara Wright. That's her." Ian looked horrified, but that wasn't the only thing Silver had seen. "Look again," she said. So Ian peered closer and saw what it was that had Silver afraid.

The words carved on the skin of the tree were so old; the tree had begun to heal over them. These words came from the past.

Behind them, a groan drew their attention. They turned to see the Doctor sitting up, clutching his head. But they didn't rush to his side, or even call out to him. Because all they could think about was their conversation in the Tardis.

The Doctor could not control his destinations.

_**...**_

Barbara woke on the ground. At least she assumed it was the ground. It could have been the sky, or the frozen coat of a lake. In a daze, she ran her fingers along the smooth surface beneath her aching back and felt the curving dips of the hard shell. Her fingers splayed to balance her weight, and she drew her legs up and sat upright. Her lips parted, and she looked around her in shock.

Footsteps resounded on the strong surface, and she whipped around to look. Her shoes slipped on the slick face of the ground and she tumbled down. She cried in pain as her ankle twisted, and her head smacked onto the hard terrain. Stunned, she could only turn herself over before a great weariness overtook her body. Every part of her felt sluggish, and drained. Her mind drained away into a kind of drugged calm, and her eyes fixed onto the sky above. _Blue,_ she thought. _I do like the color blue._

As blood flowed from her head to the sleek ground and she slipped into the blackness of her own mind, the sapphire sky over her rippled like silk and roiled with clouds of jade…

_**...**_

Susan couldn't breathe. Her eyes were half-closed in the way of near sleep, but the girl clung to the last shreds of consciousness that were hers. Fear was the only thing that kept her awake, her will-power having slipped away like the air in the glass coffin. No one had come for her, nor had Barbara returned from whatever she had been taken to.

Her breathing was slow, filled with carbon dioxide. She drew nearer and nearer to the point of sleep, a sleep from which she would never awaken, and her knowledge of this allowed her to stay aware. She didn't want to die. She had to look after her grandfather, after all. She couldn't let him down. She wouldn't.

This thought made her hands move, and she pressed her fingertips to the lid of the casket. The glass was solid, and immovable. She had beaten on it for hours after Barbara had gone, and she had gotten nowhere. This memory took away her hope, and she let her hands fall to her sides. A tear tickled her eye, and she flicked her eyelid closed to allow it to fall.

The salt water diamond trickled down her face, and her eyes remained shut. After five minutes, her mouth closed and stopped its hungry gasps for air.

Then she stopped breathing all together.


	9. Chapter 9 A Change in Problems

**9**

**A Change in Problems**

The Doctor was morose. He had been sitting on his own for about five minutes, completely silent. The words on the tree had sent him into this quiet depression, the knowledge that the likelihood of him finding Barbara was almost nil triggering it. Ian and Silver were awkwardly conversing, discussing theories on how Barbara had disappeared and whether they might be able to follow her. Without the Doctor, their ideas were few and far between.

Suddenly, the Doctor leapt up with a startled cry. Ian and Silver looked at him as he pulled the scanner from his pocket, staring at it in horror. Without as much as a 'Come on,' he ran off into the trees. The pair looked at each other, then raced after the old man.

He was fast. Faster than Silver would have thought possible for such an obviously old man. With only his white hair bobbing up and down between the trees of shadowy bark and emerald leaves to show where he was, they chased him through the living maze.

A wind tossed the branches, and the glow from the bottle green sky above them threw reflections of light and darkness against the trees. The Doctor was lost to them. Ian and Silver stopped, and without having to say a word to the other, they split up. Ian went forward and to the left, while Silver went forward and to the right. Keeping each other within shouting distance, they called out when they found the Doctor's trail. But the trail continued, and they were forced to come back to each other in order to stay together. Trees whipped past like giant sentinels and Ian and Silver grew weary, their steps slowing and their breathing ragged. Silver pressed forward because of her youth, Ian did so because of his annoyance and concern for the Doctor.

They came to an abrupt halt outside a cave. Green sky lit the gloom of the rocky opening, and Ian and Silver walked cautiously in. Footsteps, some bare with four toes, some obviously belonging to Barbara, were scattered like the dust that coated the floor of the cavern. Most recent of these were the Doctor's, heading deeper into the shadows. They followed his tracks until only the barest illumination allowed them to see the old man, apparently gone mad.

He was digging his fingers frantically into a kind of glass sarcophagus, banging on the lid with a desperation that froze the two as they stopped and stared at the Doctor in shock. Catching sight of them, he shouted at them.

"Get over here and help me!"

Startled out of their stupor, they hurried over to him and started to pull at the lid of the coffin. Silver could see a figure lying inside it, but the rough glass did not allow her to see who it was. So she and Ian heaved and the Doctor's fingers scrambled for a catch in the air tight lid and Silver's arms hurt like hell as she pulled and Ian pulled and…

…the lid popped off. The trio was thrown back with the force of the cover, and Silver had to roll aside so that it didn't crush her. She and Ian got to their feet quickly, but the Doctor was already there. He reached into the coffin and lifted a girl out of it. He laid her down, his hands at her head so that the others couldn't see her face. All they could see was her chest; still and unbreathing.

Then the Doctor moved to a better position and Ian and Silver beheld the now lifeless face of Susan Foreman.

…

Barbara woke slowly, her mind pulling itself up from the recesses of her dreams with a gradual gaining of awareness. She blinked in confusion at the sight that greeted her eyes. Above and around her was what could have been the sky, but could also have been a cave from the almost invisible sloping curve of what she saw was too close to be the horizon. Like the memory of a daydream created in the laziness of the afternoon, when the mind wanders with no thought to real remembrance, her experience of being on ice came back to her. Her fingers moved instinctively along the surface she lay on, and she felt the same thing. A feel of silken frost, cool and impossibly smooth, met her fingertips. But what was it? Not ice, for it wasn't warm enough. Not silk, for it wasn't soft enough.

The answer came to her like a whisper. _Glass._

Barbara sat up, and everything slotted into place at once. The Doctor. Ian. Silver. The glass creatures that had taken her and stuffed her into a coffin like a cadaver, and the obsidian crowned king who had ordered her cast into void.

And her arrival here. She looked around at the room of glass that she was in, reflections of herself staring back at her. She reached behind and touched her head, expecting a mess of blood and scabs. She winced, but the pain was surprisingly dulled. Her fingers were met again with an unexpected feel, this time of bandages. Something had brought her here and patched her up. But what? Where was it?

Footsteps behind her, clinking softly on the glass floor. The terror from her last experience with that noise came rushing back and Barbara started to panic. She got up –_too fast_- and whipped around –_too strong_- and she staggered away –_oh, my head_- from the opening she could now just discern from the walls of glass that encased her like a tomb. Keeping her eyes fixed on the door, she backed quickly from it until she came to a sudden halt when her head smacked off of the wall behind her. The reflections had made the room appear larger than it really was, and Barbara knew that she was a mere ten feet away from the entryway and the thing that was coming ever nearer. She winced in pain and put a hand on her head ruefully, while looking for an alternate exit. There wasn't one. All she could do was wait as the sound of glass on glass came closer and closer to her, until the silhouette of a Mophado stood set against the backlight of icy brightness that wrapped around them. Then it stepped through the door and toward her.

…

Ian ran to the Doctor's side. The old man was frantically patting his granddaughter's face, and Ian started to administer CPR to the supposedly dead girl. Silver had no idea what to do, so she stood there and felt incompetent.

Then Susan coughed; dry, fear filled coughs that shook her body. Her eyes opened, seemed to become _unclouded_, and she gasped for air with drowning breaths. With a sob, she clasped her arms around her grandfather's neck and he sat holding her as if she were a child. Silver walked over quickly, kneeling beside the trio. Ian and the Doctor were occupying Susan's attention however, so Silver retreated a ways and sat on her haunches. Her feelings of belonging had evaporated, along with her sense of usefulness. Watching the three together, she knew she was still just an outsider. So she stood and walked to the cave entrance, and told herself she was standing guard. She stood there for ten minutes before she saw the sun begin to rise. The effect on the tornado sky was stunning, and she hesitated only briefly before moving to get a better look.

She was gone all of fifteen minutes by the time Ian, the Doctor, and Susan noticed her disappearance. Helping the dazed girl to her feet, the two men assisted her to the cave entrance. Then they stopped and stared at the miracle before them.

The sun was golden, and it lit up the jade world around them in a vortex of swirling gold inlaid with emerald stones, all shot through with shadows of obsidian against the precious colors. The universe seemed suddenly so much more beautiful, so much more alive. The expanse of green and gold filled their eyes, and it took them a few moments to recognize the scream that filled their ears.

…

Silver had time for only one shrill scream before she fell out of the clearing that blazed with the green of a new day and into a spiraling void of an endless nothing. Then her scream was choked off by the silence that shrieked with noise, and she closed her mind to the darkness that shone in the white blackness. Contradictions threatened to drown her soul, and she fought against the insanity that clawed at every sense she called familiar. Her mentality seemed to strengthen, like a muscle that was made stronger by use and time. Because now the void was familiar to her. This was what she had fallen through when she had disappeared from her world and plunged into the dangerous universe the Doctor called home.

So she was totally aware when she dropped from the Void of time and fell into a world of glass.

…

Ian and the Doctor were arguing again. Susan watched the two men in despair as they stood in the middle of the clearing. She picked up on enough to know what had happened to Barbara, and what they assumed had happened to the poor girl called Silver. Ian wanted to dive in where he had seen Barbara disappear, but the Doctor wanted to take the coordinates down and gauge the age of the words written on the tree and try and fly to the correct place and time in his Tardis. Ian disagreed. Vehemently.

But Susan had just started to like Silver. They had talked and laughed and grown fond of each other in the quick way of children. So Susan mustered her courage, watched Ian's pointing finger, and took a step.

Susan Foreman ran and leapt, and vanished into nothing.


End file.
